Utah Christmas with the Browns

 Before we took off to Hawaii for Christmas,

we had a little Christmas in Utah with the Browns

at our home.

we ate some yummy food

Beckley opened some presents

and Grandpa Brown read a Christmas story

It was a very merry start to our Christmas!

our weekend.

so,

i promise (mostly to myself)

that i will get the christmas & hawaii blogs

posted tomorrow.

ai yi yi - so behind!

but, for now...

here's what we did this weekend

Braxton's (Beckley's cousin) 2nd Birthday Party!

Beck had a lot of fun

and even went twice around the roller rink 

on this little trike

(we pushed him, of course)

saying "whoa whoa" the whole time.

party animals

sharing a slice of pizza with dada

and all tired out after the party

I LOVE this picture -

check out those rosey cheeks

and snuggle with his blankie

too cute!

Beckley is also getting into more and more things...

he is also climbing on everything...

(where is that helmet when we need it??)

i'm so glad when daddy comes home...

...glad as i can be!

especially when he has been gone all week

and, he takes me to get a cookie!

good 'ole days!

This was how Beckley and I

spent our morning today 

the snow is momentarily all melted

& it was only 30 degrees cold...

so, we bundled up and headed out.

I got in a whole hour of running...

and Beckley slept for another 30 minutes.

LOVED it.

(despite the cold)

it made me miss summer... bad.  real bad.

 later today, 

i let Beckley try out

his very loved "choo-choo train"

outside for the first time.

he loved it.

even though he doesn't really know

what summer is...

i know he misses it too.

tonight's dinner

crazy boy!

what we are loving these days...

COCOA PUFFS

(cure all for the Beckster)

new running shoes

(cure all for the Mom)

Hot Chocolate 

made in our new milk frother

(cure all for "da da")

the Bachelor

 & balloons!

NO MORE HELMET!!!

as of last week,

we are HELMET FREE!

Here is Beckley at his last helmet appointment

this is the first time he ever got upset

in the scanning machine - poor guy.

he is pretty darn cute in that "doo-rag" (??)

but, I won't miss these appointments much!

(click here to see him at his first appointment)

a picture with Mike, "the helmet guy"

(super nice guy - but, won't miss him much either)

although, Beckley was sad to see him go

(Beckley waving bye and looking concerned

as Mike leaves)

So...

 here are some stats on Beckley's head:

(if you don't remember what each of these measurements are

see this post)

                                                                    as of 9/14/10                 as of 1/13/11

Cephalic Ratio                                                 0.926                             0.878

Oblique Diagonal Difference                           7.9                                  3.2

He is now average on both of these measurements!

Just for "fun",

here are some before and after pictures:

BEFORE

Beckley is the one on the bottom

-- you can see the his head is wide.

here you can see that his head was 

pretty flat in the back

AFTER

all of those after pictures were taken last week.

we are very happy with the

success of the helmet!

we are also very happy

to be done with the helmet!

   

 we celebrated by giving Beckley his first chocolate chip cookie...

i think he liked it!

we're not quite sure where the helmet's new home will be...

or what we will do with all the stickers

that decorated the helmet the last few months

(for now they are on his bathroom mirror...

i should put them in his baby book...

if only i had kept up on that!)

and although we will miss

the extra protection the helmet provided

(we've already had some big bumps post helmet)...

we will NOT miss

a very stinky head,

having to take it on and off

(this was tricky when there was only one of us),

trying to get his shirts on or off over that helmet

(i think he is forever traumatized about getting dressed!)

tantrums thrown while holding him with the helmet on (ouch!),

and stiff necks from him "resting" his head on our shoulder as he fell asleep.

and...

 I am sure Beckley

is loving sleeping

helmet free!

(although it didn't seem to bother him,

i still can't imagine that it was comfortable to sleep in!)

(here is asleep tonight

without his helmet!)

night night

&

buh bye

helmet!

i don't know.

family pics...

we tried to get family pictures taken

for most of November...

but, the weather did NOT cooperate.

it finally warmed up to about 30 degrees 

one day in December,

and so we braved the less cold day

and took a few pictures

by the lake in our neighborhood.

we are a happy (but cold) family!